Podtrac Discontinues Support For Some Soundcloud Options

A recent update to Podtrac's Terms of Service (TOS) went out via email. Here is the part that caught my eye.

The first is a change to our Terms of Service (TOS) which is effective immediately. We’ve updated the Registration and Implementation of Services section of the TOS to explicitly state that behaviors which attempt to falsely manipulate the measurement results are not permitted when using the Podtrac redirect. Those prohibited behaviors are:

Use of any automated tasks or scripts (bots)
Engaging in purchase of bogus podcast traffic/downloads
Pre-loading of media files in website players or apps
Issuance of server-side requests to the redirect

Second, effective April 1, 2018, Podtrac will discontinue support of the portion of SoundCloud traffic which is not RSS delivery. This means that traffic via the SoundCloud app and website (which does not pass through the Podtrac measurement system) will no longer be included on your Podtrac Dashboard, as Podtrac is unable to verify this non-RSS delivery. RSS delivery of SoundCloud hosted media will continue to be measured and displayed on your dashboard.

Some people are talking about the “New” feature that was added to Soundcloud. The feature? The ability to schedule an episode in the future. Notice that while they were updating they still do not support the latest iTunes tags for episodes and episode numbers. So to add the feature of scheduling an episode is like a Car manufacturer announcing they've added an auxiliary jack for people to plug their phones into (while the other companies are already set with Apple Car Play and Android Auto).

Why Sponsors Don't Like Sponsoring Shows on Soundcloud

You Can Move Your Soundcloud Show to Libsyn For Free

Here is the process.
1. You sign up at Libsyn and let us know the email you used to signup/name of your show (use the coupon code sopfree to get a free month)
2. Provide the RSS of your old provider
3. We suspend your quota and attempt to import your show (mp3 files, show notes, artwork etc)
4. We reset your quota so you can move forward

From there you put a provided link into your Soundcloud account and a small bit of provided code into your Libsyn feed.

This way your iTunes subscribers, reviews, all stay the same. The changes to iTunes are in the back-end and your listeners don't notice a difference.

About The Author

My name is Dave Jackson I am an award-winning podcaster who has been podcasting since 2005.
I'm am a featured/keynote speaker at events, author of the book More Podcast Money, and I served as the Director of Podcasting for the New Media Expo.
I am best known for founding the School of Podcasting and help hundreds of podcasters launch successful podcasts